Municipalities assist in spring beautification efforts

May 11, 2013

Flowers and perennials are planted outside of a College Avenue store. Appleton spends about $5,000 on 2,000 plants for College Avenue planters and other containers at city facilities. / Post-Crescent Media

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Recent spring showers really will bring flowers to Fox Cities communities — with a little coaxing from the green thumbs of city workers.

In the coming weeks, cities will pull out their garden tools to plant the spring flowers they budget for annually.

Appleton brings some color to the city each year by spending about $5,000 on 2,000 plants for College Avenue planters and other containers outside city facilities, said Mike Michlig, the city forester.

“We have a pretty extensive flower planting program,” Michlig said. “We try to beautify the area — it attracts customers to the downtown.”

Local vendors bid for the plant contract and city workers should bury flower roots in soil before or after Memorial Day. The planting schedule is weather dependent and frost is always possible through May, Michlig said.

“We kind of have to hedge the weather a little bit,” Michlig said.

The 2,000 plants bought by the city this year will not be the only flowers growing in public spaces around town. Michlig pointed out that flowers and shrubs are often built into the total cost of a project. That is the case for the revamping of Houdini Plaza underway in downtown Appleton, he said.

Menasha spends about $4,500 on 6,500 plants for the formal gardens in Smith Park and at the Resthaven cemetery, said Vince Maas, the city’s superintendent of parks, forestry and cemetery.

“We have a lot of weddings at Smith Park so those kind of enhance that setting,” Maas said.

City workers will plant the flowers at the two sites just before Memorial Day weekend, Maas said. Any leftover plants will be spread out across other municipal facilities, he said.

In Neenah, about $1,000 worth of flowers will be planted at the cemetery and between $500 and $1,000 will be spent to fill the park gardens, said Eileen McCoy, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

The flowers will go in the ground once the city’s seasonal staff starts in early June, she said.